


Belief in Something

by CadetDru



Series: Virtues of the Arrangement [3]
Category: Good Omens (TV)
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Crisis of Faith, Having Faith, Other, Seven Heavenly Virtues, The Arrangement (Good Omens)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2020-05-20 08:19:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19372849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CadetDru/pseuds/CadetDru
Summary: Aziraphale wanted humans to Believe.  It didn't always matter what they believed in.





	1. Books

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Light didn't always have to mean Good and Pure.

Decades of the Arrangement meant that there were many worshipful Satanists convinced that Lord Crowley liked to take the form of an unassuming blond man. It wasn't entirely inaccurate.  Crowley did like to send off Aziraphale to do his work.  Blonde hair, white wings, it could still be sold as demonic if given the right presentation. Light didn't always have to mean Good and Pure.  Snake eyes and black wings were a bit harder to change, so Crowley wasn't able to pull the same trick. Sometimes, if it was important enough, they could try to take the other's shape. It usually wasn't worth it.

One day in the late nineties, a trio of Satanists furtively made their way through the bookshop.  They were tentatively looking for books to summon a demon with.  Aziraphale was just relieved they weren't trying to shoplift anything; furtive young people usually were either out to steal or looking for improper materials.

He went so far as to recommend a book that he knew could do no real harm. He could appear in Crowley's place, he was supposed to lead the youngest one to the path of righteousness on the same night that they were planning on their attempt. That night. He gave them a genial smile as he took their money.  

"Remember to focus on what feels right," he said in parting.  "What you envision, what you intend, affects everything."

"Thank you, Mr. Fell," Daniel, the leader, said.  "We'll try to keep that in mind."  The young man was already retreating before his feet moved him out the door. Jacky and Joshua followed, Joshua looking behind one last time.  Joshua was the one Aziraphale was supposed to tempt away from the path of Evil.

Aziraphale closed the shop early, even for his own standards.  He called Crowley.  "I'm still covering for you on the new moon, aren't I?"

"Sure," Crowley said. "We'll get a drink when the moon waxes and you can tell me all about it." Aziraphale could hear the wicked smile in his voice.

"Tomorrow night then, that little pub by you," Aziraphale said, replacing the receiver.


	2. Circle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Outside the Circle

The young men were seated on the floor of a squalid bedroom, carefully arranged around an intricately designed circle of salt and candles.  There was a scrawl of a snake in the very center, a burnt out match as its one visible eye.  It was much too much for Aziraphale, but it was the kind of thing that Crowley loved to set up.  He needed to think that way.

"We call forth the demon Crowley!" Daniel cried.

Aziraphale stood behind them. Timing was everything.  Avoiding the circle was everything, as well.  The entire operation was very careful. He had done this kind of thing before, and he would probably do it again.  One soul was about to be permanently saved, and two placed on ice to be retrieved later.

The candles burned.  The candles blew out.  The young men sat in the dark, not looking behind them for matches, a lighter, the light switch. They were just staring at their careful circle.  

"Ahem," Aziraphale said finally.

He was in his classic white robes, white wings extended wide.  This too, was everything. The trio stayed seated, just twisted to stay Aziraphale who stayed against the far wall.

"An angel," Joshua murmured.  Aziraphale needed him to hold onto that all too accurate seed of doubt in the Devil, belief in the Divine.  The other two were going to give their souls over to Hell, with or without Aziraphale's presence.  Even if he failed Crowley's mission, they would retain their distrust in the forces of Good.  Joshua needed Crowley to be an angel, and Aziraphale could deliver.

"Are you really a demon?" Jacky said.

"All demons were angels once.  The Fall affects everyone differently. Light is within us all, burning away."  Aziraphale smiled, crooked and cruel.  "What can I do for you gentlemen?"

"Are you the demon Crowley?" Daniel asked.

"You called for Lord Crowley.  I came." Not a lie, not a shred of a lie.  "What would you like?  Sex, drugs, rock and roll?" 

"Enlightenment," Joshua said.  There was a soft glow to his eyes now. He was having his own private epiphany.

"Are you really Mr. Fell?" Jacky asked.  "The little man from the bookshop?"

Aziraphale gave a sad and sincere shake of the head.  Ezra Fell was a nice fiction, something he could disavow.  "I am taking a form you've recently seen, one you would associate with wisdom and knowledge. I am not that poor little man."

Jacky smirked, thinking back to the ridiculous bookshop owner.  Joshua nodded solemnly, thinking of the kind man who had warned them. Daniel tilted his head, thinking of what he had heard from people who claimed they had seen Crowley.  Some had mentioned red hair and snake eyes.  Others talked about a blond, like Mr. Fell.  How many times would a demon use the face of a bookshop owner?

Aziraphale waved his hands over his face, chin to forehead and back again. Crowley's face briefly, briefly appeared, overlaid on his own, snake eyes flashing gold before being replaced again by Aziraphale's eyes flashing white. 

"So, you know what we want," Daniel said.

In the blink of an eye, Aziraphale held a golden apple in his hand. Tiny miracles right and left, and Joshua was the reason why. "You want the knowledge that you think I can give you. You want power over your fellow man, over Heaven, Hell and Earth."  The light emitting from Aziraphale glinted off the apple. He threw it to Daniel, who caught it clumsily.  "You already have this knowledge, the difference between Good and Evil.  You three have been delving even further.  If you believe in the Devil, you must believe in God.  If you believe in God, you must believe that Evil will be the losing side. If you believe you can change any of that, you will have to work at it." 

"We can prosper, here and now. You can tell us...things.  Things that will make us rich, powerful, respected."

"Name them," Aziraphale said.

Jacky opened and closed his mouth. "You're here to serve us."

"I still need some direction," Aziraphale said.  "You need to decide exactly what it is that you want."

"What should we do?" Joshua asked Aziraphale.

"Will these books help?" Daniel asked, resting his hand upon the stack that Aziraphale had merely added to.

"More than anything I can tell you.  Are you done with me?"

"For now," Daniel said, coldly. "We will call upon you again, Crowley.  At the next new moon."

There was literally no significance to Crowley what phase of the moon it was.  It was just a little detail he had planted long ago in the How To Summon The Serpent of Knowledge construct to make sure people were paying attention.

The candles relit themselves as Aziraphale disappeared in his own puff of smoke. The trio looked back to the snake in the circle, and began to process it in their own individual ways.


	3. Pub

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Debriefing in a pub

Aziraphale was late. There was nothing new there. Crowley beat Aziraphale to the pub.  He was stopped by the bar by two confused-looking young men.

"Is your name Crowley by any chance?" Jacky asked him.

"Anthony J. Crowley?" Daniel said further. "We may have met in Mr. Fell's bookshop?" 

"Or somewhere else," Jacky offered. "Somewhere a bit more...intimate?" He waggled his eyebrows.

Crowley couldn't remember any specific misdeeds that would have involved two young idiots such as these. Crowley sipped at his pint, waiting for the point as he waited for the angel.  

"Why do you wear dark glasses inside?" Daniel asked.

"Is there something wrong with your eyes?" Jacky said.

Crowley let them glimpse the snake eyes. They didn't run away.

"Do you know Mr. Fell personally?" Daniel asked.  "Does he know your secret?"

"Is that why you took his face?" Jacky asked.

"Is that what I did?" Crowley asked, lips still curled in a smile. 

"What is really going on?"

"Joshua says that was an angel, last night. That you were trying to scare us onto the proper path."

"Do you believe him?" Crowley asked.

"Should we?"

"The circle was never touched."

"My dear Crowley!" Aziraphale cried, breaking into the triangle that had formed.  He stood between Jacky and Crowley, creating room with a furry of elbows. "I am so sorry I'm late."

"Angel," Crowley said, calculating his words carefully.  He turned away from the boys to kiss Aziraphale's cheek.  "I missed you last night."

"You told me that you had other plans," Aziraphale said, a trifle petulantly. 

"I did," Crowley said.  "Work called. I can still miss you while I work. You know you're a great inspiration to me."

Aziraphale smiled so sweetly.  "Sorry, did I interrupt?" he asked Jacky and Daniel.

"Those books we bought yesterday..."

Aziraphale was blank for a moment.  "Oh, right!  There were three of you then."

"Do you have more books like that?"

"I should have, two days from now."

"We have at least a month," Daniel said.

"Splendid," Aziraphale.  "Well, if you'll excuse us, Anthony and I have some catching up to do."

"Don't we, angel."

The tally of two doubting and one saved meant Aziraphale ended up owing Crowley a round of drinks.  The duo left of the trio watched as the angel and demon talked, before giving up and walking off.


End file.
